Strange use of 'colleagues'?

Ours were changed from 'service users' to 'people'.
Innovative, eh?

Yes, in a similar vein to patients at the home for behaviourally challenged adults (where DIL works) being carefully referred to as 'service users'. To me that implies a certain choice- I'm using your hospital, library or whatever because I opt to (but I could stop or go elsewhere!) Since most are there whether they want to be or not, I don't think they are exactly that! (Service recipients?)

It amused my when I worked for HMRC & our Taxpayers became"Customers", customers have a choice

Staff Parking is just fine, Colleague Parking makes no sense to a Customer

I rarely shop with any of my colleagues so I'm pretty much out of luck if I can't find what I'm looking for!
You've hit the nail on the head Lizzypb. This is exactly what I think every time I hear the announcements.
I think (though correct me if I'm wrong) the use of 'colleague' to mean staff started with Asda many, many years ago, and then Tesco and Sainsbury, among others, followed suit. I heard that the thinking behind it was that the word staff originally referred to housemaids, servants, butlers, ladies in waiting and so on - all the 'below stairs' folk in the grand houses of the nobility in days gone by - and was therefore considered patronising and condescending. I have no idea how true that is, but certainly today the definition is somewhat different. The Oxford Dictionary defines staff as 'All the people employed by a particular organization.'. This definition precisely fits everyone employed at Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury and so on. The term 'colleague' does not.

In America they speak of coworkers but when I see it written the ‘cow’ jumps out at me. Have to smile.

Sparkly1000. Seriously? ?Pass the sick bucket! ?

Before I retired I endured fifteen years of work huddles where we were given gold stars for helping our team colleagues.

Also off topic, in the '80 after helping at a conference we were thanked by an organiser who addressed us as 'team'.

Slightly off topic? but I hate the use of the word crew for staff in hipster bars, cafes etc?

They found it patronising!

Polly - 'Learners' sounds horrible and barely normal English!

I'm with Baggs, Staff Parking is fine.
John Lewis used 'partners' because their staff members are in fact partners.

Exactly Lizzie pop bottle -a colleague is someone one works with. So to introduce a workmate as a colleague is correct but to have a notice saying 'reserved for colleagues 'makes no sense. They are not my colleagues! And we may be colleagues (of someone else) but are not supposed to park there! The word staff is much better.
In our yourh we were cusomers in shops,passengers on trains, patients at the GP and clients at the hairdresser. For some unkown reason we are now referred to as customers everywhere which I find annoying.
In the same way when I taught Adult Education classes we were told to call our students 'Learners' which they all hated. They preferred students and I don't see why not. They were studying! Who thinks up these things?
I couldn't have stood that chant Sparkly.! It would have driven me up the wall and demotivated me!!

sarah on the train I’m a passenger with the water company that’s trickier

Well, I am glad you found it amusing, Sparkly. I would have told the management that if I had wanted to be a kindergarten teacher that is where I would have applied for a job!

Picking up on Janeainsworth's comment, my OH used to work for John Lewis and you're right, although they were called partners, they had no say in decision making by the company and always felt exploited. After suffering industrial injury there due to their questionable H&S , he had to leave. And in my own work place, although we're called colleagues, it is very much an Us and Them ethos.

When I was nursing we used to have huddles. I gather it's a term from American football. This annoyed me and I thought we should have a 'scrum'.

Equality to the point of ridiculous, other than we are all equal in how we enter and depart this world, then there will always be distinctions..

When I worked for the DWP we were originally told to call people coming in 'Claimants ' - this was soon changed to 'Customers' as it was judged to be more PC - but led to lots of people telling us that they had no choice but to come to the Benefits Office and were hardly 'Customers' as that implied that they had other options! We then moved to 'Clients' - not sure what it is now!

Before retirement I worked at Sainsbury's for a couple of years and we were under no illusions, colleagues or not, we were treated very poorly.
Earlier in my life I worked as a consulting engineer , and I remember the bosses son objecting to staff being referred to as colleagues , as he said co implied equal and he was of higher status. You've guessed it, he was a pompous prat.

Yes varian but at John Lewis and Waitrose the employeescactually own the business and partner is an accurate description. Colleague is a tricky one and staff parking is much more honest really. I was described as the Caretaker at ALDI but most of my work was actually cleaning

Maryeliza54
What would you prefer to be known as when purchasing a service.

Grrrrr..... I hate the use of the term “guys”!! I am NOT a man and don’t even look like one - at least Jimmy Saville used to say “Guys and Gals”. Moan over!

sparkle1000, I do agree with you. It's all rather pathetic, isn't it? I know that Walmart is an American company, but why do we have to copy everything "American" in our culture? Doing silly chants like that would just make me feel uncomfortable and actually it would detract from the actual business in hand - the content and purpose of the meeting - sorry, "huddle" ???. Oh dear, I'm going to be accused of being racist now, aren't I? ?

The Sainsbury's 'colleague' references amuse me too. If you need any help, notices advise you to ask a colleague. I rarely shop with any of my colleagues so I'm pretty much out of luck if I can't find what I'm looking for!

colleague noun, a person with whom one works in a profession or business (Google search)